Ireland's oldest man dies aged 106

Ireland's oldest man, Paddy Gleeson, has passed away at the ripe age of 106 in Raheen Community Hospital in Co.Clare.

Since turning 100 on May 20th, 2004, the Clare man has received six presidential medals for each birthday.

Mr Gleeson was a lifelong teetotaler and a bachelor. According to the man himself, hard work, no alcohol, the odd cigarette and being “nice” to people helped him grow old gracefully.

“The secret is this: I was nice to everyone and then everyone was nice to me,” he said earlier this year.

Throughout his life he voted in every general election since the foundation of the state. He spent his life doing odd jobs and working as a laborer. He was orphaned as a young boy.

"I worked at every type of a job that was going. Hard work was the only way I could earn a few pounds," he said in a past interview.

Mr Gleeson, from O'Callaghan's Mills, Co Clare, died peacefully at the Raheen Community Hospital on Saturday last.

A hospital spokeswoman said people were very sad to see him go: "His passing is of significance. Paddy was a lovely man, very likable. He was sharp right up to the very end and he will be sadly missed by everyone here," she said.